WCPJS files human rights complaint on behalf of transgender prisoners

The West Coast Prison Justice society has filed a human rights complaint against the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) on behalf of transgender prisoners.

CSC’s policies require prisoners to be placed in male or female prisons according to their genitals, rather than by gender identity. Both BC and Ontario corrections place prisoners according to gender, if that is the person’s preference. CSC’s policy means that vulnerable trans women are forced to live in men’s prisons where they are at constant risk of sexual assault.

CSC policy also puts trans prisoners at risk of suffering other dehumanizing forms of harassment and discrimination, including the risk of being forced to share a cell with someone of the opposite gender, being strip searched by officers of the opposite gender, or being referred to by the wrong name and inappropriate gender pronouns.

CSC’s policy also fails to conform to international standards for the provision of medically necessary surgery.